System and method to produce and control subsidization of targeted materials at point of sale

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a system and method to produce and control subsidization of targeted advertising materials. According to one exemplary method, customized printer material and targeted advertising material is provided to a consumer, where the price of the customized printed material is subsidized in exchange for the consumer agreeing to receive the targeted advertising material.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENTS AND APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/345,301, filed May 17, 2010, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD TO PRODUCE AND CONTROL SUBSIDIZATION OF TARGETED MATERIALS AT POINT OF SALE, by Gnanasambandam et al., “U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/345,340, filed May 17, 2010, entitled “OPTIMAL AUCTION MECHANISM FOR MULTI-LEVEL DEVICE CLICK-THROUGH (DCT) IN TARGETED PRINT COMMUNICATION,” by Lee et al., U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/345,289, filed May 17, 2010, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHODS TO USE IN-PARTITE SCALE-FREE GRAPHS FOR INTERPRETING CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION AND TARGETING,” by Gnanasambandam et al., and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/345,377, filed May 17, 2010, entitled “METHOD FOR IDENTIFICATION, CATEGORIZATION AND SEARCH OF GRAPHICAL, AUDITORY AND COMPUTATIONAL PATTERN ENSEMBLES,” by Gnanasambandam et al., each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENTS AND APPLICATIONS

The following applications, the disclosures of each being incorporated herein by reference are mentioned: U.S. application Ser. No. ______, filed ______, by Haengju Lee et al., entitled “OPTIMAL AUCTION MECHANISM FOR MULTI-LEVEL PRINT CLICK-THROUGH (PCT) IN TARGETED PRINT COMMUNICATION”; U.S. application Ser. No. ______, filed ______, by Nathan Gnanasambandam et al., entitled “SYSTEM AND METHODS TO USE N-PARTITE SCALE-FREE GRAPHS FOR INTERPRETING CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION AND TARGETING”; and, U.S. application Ser. No. ______, filed ______, by ______, entitled ______.

BACKGROUND

At a point of sale (POS) such as a card-like store or mall, producing creative greeting cards and artifacts is difficult for the average user. From a B2B (Business to Business) sense, scaling to volumes in an entire franchisee network is even more difficult—as personalized material and advertisements need to be created on demand at the POS with a lot size of one in most cases. Even if personalization is feasible, it is costlier than the preprinted material already stocked there for the consumer i.e. a second complication that affects business viability. Even for a large greeting card company, the process of making it on-site at the point of sale involves costly printers, software and a length of time before becoming profitable. In this disclosure, provided is a method and system to subsidize a rendering process, such as a printing process, at the point of sale and reduce the break-even period of the service provider by coupling targeted communications, such as advertisements, with personalized, i.e., customized, printed material.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

The following Patent Applications, Patent Application Publications and Non-patent references are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety:

Lee et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/100,636, filed May 4, 2011, entitled “Optimal Auction Mechanism for Multi-Level Device Click-Through (DCT) in Targeted Print Communication”;

Gnanasambandam et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/780,543, filed May 14, 2010, entitled “System and Method to Prearrange Hyper-Local Value-Added Marketing Campaigns and Communication Along Consumer Trajectories”;

Gnanasambandam et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/780,267, filed May 14, 2010, entitled “In-Situ Mobile Application Suggestions and Multi-Application Updates through Context Specific Analytics”;

Gnanasambandam et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. U.S. 2010/0088178 A1, published Apr. 8, 2010, entitled “System and Method for Generating and Verifying Targeted Advertisements Delivered Via a Printer Device”;

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Liu et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/540,051; filed Aug. 13, 2009, entitled “System and Method for Communicating with a Network of Printers Using a Mobile Device”;

Harrington, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/533,901, filed Jul. 31, 2009, entitled “Method and System for Constructing a Document Redundancy Graph”;

Gnanasambandam et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/486,951, filed Jun. 18, 2009, entitled “System and Method for Policy-driven File Segmentation and Intercloud File Storage and Retrieval”;

Partridge et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/480,558, filed Jun. 8, 2009, entitled “Method and System for Printing Documents from a Portable Device”;

Gnanasambandam et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/424,858, filed Apr. 16, 2009, entitled “System and Method for Selectively Controlling the Use of Functionality in One or More Multifunction Devices and Subsidizing Their Use Through Advertisements”;

Gnanasambandam et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/424,820, filed Apr. 16, 2009, entitled “Method and System for Providing Contract-free ‘pay-as-you-go’ Options for Utilization of Multi-function Devices”;

St. Jacques, Jr. et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/335,048, filed Dec. 15, 2008, entitled “Method and System for Automatically Providing for Multi-point Document Storing, Access, and Retrieval”;

Edelman, B. and M. Schwarz “Optimal Auction Design in a Multi-Unit Environment: The Case of Sponsored Search Auctions,” Unpublished manuscript, Harvard Business School 2006;

Edelman, B., Ostrovsky, M., and Schwarz, M., “Internet Advertising and the Generalized Second-Price Auction: Selling Billions of Dollars Worth of Keywords,” American Economic Review, American Economic Association, Vol. 97(1), pages 242-259, March 2007;

Google AdWords Select, 2002 https://www.google.co/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=adwords&hl;

Myerson, R. B. “Optimal Auction Design,” Mathematics of Operations Research, 6(1), pages 58-73, 1981;

Shazam Entertainment Ltd., 2002, http://www.shazam.com/music/web/pages/background.html;

Talluri, K. and van Ryzin, G., “The Theory and Practice of Revenue Management,” Publisher Springer, 1^(st) Edition, Feb. 23, 2005;

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Walsh, T., “Search on High Degree Graphs,” In Proceedings of IJCAI-2001, pages 266-271, 2001.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

In one embodiment of this disclosure, described is a method for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material to a first party, the customized printed material including one or both of customized content selected by the first party and customized content provided by the first party, the customized printed material and the targeted advertising material printed at a POS (Point of Sale) printing device for a subsidized nominal price to be charged by a second party to the first party, the subsidized nominal price related to a nominal price subsidized by a third party associated with providing the targeted advertising material in consideration for the targeted advertising material being printed along with the customized printed material, the method comprising a) the first party creating customized material including one or both of customized content selected by the first party and customized content provided by the first party to be printed by the POS printing device; b) communicating to one of the printing device and one or more servers operatively connected to the printing device the created customized material including the customized content to be printed by the POS printing device; c) one or more of the POS printing device and the one or more servers generating the targeted advertising material in a format for printing by the POS printing device; d) one or more of the POS printing device and the one or more servers providing nominal price subsidization information to one or both of the first party and the second party, the nominal price subsidization information associated with a subsidization of the nominal price associated with providing the customized printed material to the first party in consideration for the targeted advertising material being printed along with the customized printed material; e) the POS printing device printing the customized material and the target advertising material; and f) the first party paying the second party the subsidized nominal price based on the subsidization information.

In another embodiment of this disclosure, described is a method for providing rendered customized material and targeted advertising material to a first party, the rendered customized material including one or both of customized content selected by the first party and customized content provided by the first party, the customized material and the targeted advertising material rendered on a rendering device for a subsidized nominal price to be charged by a second party to the first party, the subsidized nominal price related to a nominal price subsidized by a third party associated with providing the targeted advertising material in consideration for the targeted advertising material being rendered along with the customized material, the method comprising a) the first party creating customized material including one or both of customized content selected by the first party and customized content provided by the first party to be rendered by the rendering device; b) communicating to one of the rendering device and one or more servers operatively connected to the rendering device the created customized material including the customized content to be rendered by the rendering device; c) one or more of the rendering device and the one or more servers generating the targeted advertising material in a format for rendering by the printing device; d) one or more of the rendering device and the one or more servers providing nominal price subsidization information to one or both of the first party and the second party, the nominal price subsidization information associated with a subsidization of the nominal price associated with providing the rendered customized material to the first party in consideration for the targeted advertising material being rendered along with the customized material; e) the rendering device rendering the customized material and the target advertising material; and f) the first party paying the second party the subsidized nominal price based on the subsidization information.

In still another embodiment of this disclosure, described is a printing system for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material to a first party, the customized printed material including one or both of customized content selected by the first party and customized content provided by the first party, the customized printed material and the targeted advertising material printed at a POS (Point of Sale) printing device for a subsidized nominal price to be charged by a second party to the first party, the subsidized nominal price related to a nominal price subsidized by a third party associated with providing the targeted advertising material in consideration for the targeted advertising material being printed along with the customized printed material, the printing system comprising a POS printing device; and one or more severs operatively connected to the POS printing device, wherein one or more of the POS printing devices and the one or more servers are configured to execute a method comprising: a) the first party creating customized material including one or both of customized content selected by the first party and customized content provided by the first party to be printed by the POS printing device; b) communicating to one of the printing device and one or more servers operatively connected to the printing device the created customized material including the customized content to be printed by the POS printing device; c) one or more of the POS printing device and the one or more servers generating the targeted advertising material in a format for printing by the POS printing device; d) one or more of the POS printing device and the one or more servers providing nominal price subsidization information to one or both of the first party and the second party, the nominal price subsidization information associated with a subsidization of the nominal price associated with providing the customized printed material to the first party in consideration for the targeted advertising material being printed along with the customized printed material; e) the POS printing device printing the customized material and the target advertising material; and f) the first party paying the second party the subsidized nominal price based on the subsidization information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an architecture of subsidized point of sale personalized artifact;

FIG. 2 is a mobile interface for subsidized creative artifact—Rimon cards with option to be ad sponsored and delivered via print or email;

FIG. 3 is a categorized list of communication material;

FIG. 4 is a submission modalities interaction with kiosk/MFD;

FIG. 5 is a smart-phone to print;

FIG. 6 shows using context graph to associate and predict chain of correlated events;

FIG. 7 shows relevance determination for a given category of event (e.g., birthday vs. graduation party);

FIG. 8 shows generalized workflow from consumer perspective;

FIG. 9 shows a targeted communications system within hyper-local domain;

FIG. 10 shows relative trends in the hyper-local domain across vendors or stores;

FIGS. 11-20 illustrate one exemplary embodiment of this disclosure including an iPhone application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure provides a system for producing targeted, creative rendered material (e.g. greeting card) at a point of sale at a price subsidized more than other comparable rendered material. In particular, addressed is the case of a greeting or an event card at a card-like store where a customized and targeted greeting card is made cheaper relative to other cards there. While on-demand cards with personal effects and seemingly hand-written notes on them can be expensive to produce on-demand, involving both printing equipment and creative software, included herein are targeted event-centric coupons or communications that help the receiver of the card avail of discounts. The targeted communications or coupons are also created in-situ through a closed loop targeting engine operating from the cloud. The provider of the coupons offers payments to the targeting engine that is shared with the greeting card printer and the greeting card purchaser. The communications printed have other tracking mechanisms so that users of the coupons or the person receiving the card can track usage. Usage information is shared with marketing agencies to provide revenue for the targeting engine.

It is to be understood the following detailed description focuses primarily on printed customized material, however, the exemplary embodiments described are applicable to rendering customized material with any rendering device, for example, but not limited to a cell phone, personal computer display, etc.

At a physical point of sale, there are limited ways to dynamically control subsidization of a creative artifact, especially paper-based goods such as greeting cards. Real-world hyper-local domains (e.g. malls, stores, etc.) cannot produce targeted material at point of sale at a price lower than the pre-printed material there.

Most printed materials at point of sale are pre-printed, for example, printed greeting cards, marketing material etc.

Any personalization of customizations leads to higher cost as creating the customization involves resources & software. Accordingly, it is not made cheaper relative to other printed material.

Furthermore, current card printing systems provide no notion of a campaign, such as personal event, marketing event and no online tie-up & tracking for a card that is printed at the point of sale.

Other problems associated with current card printing systems include the inability to include semi-structured customization, advertisements and messages (e.g, handwritten information, pictures taken on site, captured pictures personalized with hand-writing-like embellishments and other text etc.); and, the inability to provide inputs about friends and target audiences at the point of sale in order to produce custom cards for each.

This disclosure provides targeted, creative printed material (e.g. greeting card) at a point of sale at a price subsidized more than other comparable printed material. In particular, addressed is the case of a greeting or an event card at a card-like store where a customized and targeted greeting card is made cheaper relative to other cards there. While on-demand cards with personal effects and seemingly hand-written notes on them can be expensive to produce on-demand, involving both printing equipment and creative software, included herein are targeted event-centric coupons or communications that help the receiver of the card avail of discounts. The targeted communications or coupons are also created in-situ through a closed loop targeting engine operating from the cloud. The provider of the coupons offers payments to the targeting engine that is shared with the greeting card printer and the greeting card purchaser. The communications printed have other tracking mechanisms so that users of the coupons or the person receiving the card can track usage. Usage information is shared with marketing agencies to provide revenue for the targeting engine.

As previously discussed, at a physical point of sale, there are limited ways to dynamically control subsidization of a creative artifact, especially paper-based goods such as greeting card. Real-world hyper-local domains (e.g. malls, stores etc.) cannot produce targeted material at point of sale at a price lower than the pre-printed material there.

One other subsidization includes that of the postage charges that can be decreased for the end-user by mailing from a location proximal to the recipient. The produced artifact can be mailed from a local mailing service closer to the point of contact rather than the point of sale. This makes tremendous sense especially if the recipients are located all over the globe. Though the artifact is created at the point of sale, some of it may be digitally transmitted and printed by a special purpose mailing service. The mailing service could also be a production print-shop which automates some of the off-shore mail production and delivery.

At a point of sale (POS) such as a card-like store or mall, producing creative greeting cards and artifacts is difficult for the average user. From a B2B (Business to Business) sense, scaling to volumes in an entire franchisee network is even more difficult—as personalized material and advertisements need to be created on demand at the POS with a lot size of one in most cases. Even if personalization is feasible, it is costlier than the preprinted material already stocked there for the consumer i.e. a second complication that affects business viability. Even for a large greeting card company, the process of making it on-site at the point of sale involves costly printers, software and a length of time before becoming profitable. In this disclosure, provided is a method to subsidize this printing process at the point of sale and reduce the break-even period of the service provider by coupling targeted communications (including advertisements) with personalized printed material.

Notably, currently sending targeted advertisements and personalized communications to an arbitrary machine is not done. Interaction mechanisms for personalization at remote devices are limited and the subsidization mechanisms available are not dynamic.

A nonexclusive list of motivations for the disclosed embodiments include the following:

(a) Current creative products/approaches are not scalable at a POS: It is difficult/hard to produce personalized (greeting card) material at scale & professional quality at a point of sale (i.e., personalized cards with hard-written notes, pictures or drawings still have appeal.)—the volume coming from a large geographic area—such as the entire franchisee network of a large card store chain.

(b) Reducing the price: Most people are willing pay more for customized cards than they will spend on a preprinted card. The proposition is to make the customized card less expensive.

(c) POS advantage: Customized cards can carry pictures that are submitted or taken on the spot or at the point of sale. The fact that customer is already at a POS (e.g. mall) can be leveraged to market additional artifacts.

(d) MFD features: Messages can be custom and seemingly handwritten as well. MFDs and scan-in can facilitate some of this.

(e) Take advantage of personalized images by adding these images to graphics and pictures.

(f) Inventory: A shop owner can carry less static inventory. Pre-printed cards can result in the necessity for large inventory and real-estate.

All-in-all the value proposition and customer experience can be greater within the disclosed POS systems/methods than traditional greeting cards. While people have focused on personalizing and charging more, real-time subsidization schemes for point-of-sale event merchandise has not been a focus.

Through a revenue sharing scheme between the store, user and advertisement aggregator, more usage can be driven and a faster return on investment can be facilitated (specifically with money being transferred to the store).

Exemplary Embodiments Relating to Controlling POS Advertising in a Hyper-Local Domain:

(a) Producing and subsidizing point of sale printed material with activity-driven targeting.

(b) Leveraging event and activity-oriented targeting & group (e.g. invitees to a party; a couple) plans/interactions.

(c) Attracting and providing a cross-media experience and elicit feedback from a group and its activity (email, portal, evite collaboration site) by controlling the targeting as an extension to POS purchase and confirmation of coupon/ad use.

(d) Extracting meta-data from such activities and selling to a marketer.

(e) (Semi-structured inputs) Method for an individual person to run a marketing campaign using hand-drawn or semi-structured inputs and dynamically retrieving and printing them on paper depending on meta-data.

(f) Method to track and provide feedback and/or monetary incentives for handing off personalized paper-based printed artifacts and using the results of the tracking to place advertisements/messages optimally in another region or time.

System and Methodology

According to one exemplary embodiment of this disclosure, the customer interacts with just one mobile device (or elements of kiosk on occasion). The personalization, targeting and delivery are centrally controlled and the artifact is delivered to the consumer near his current location (mall, card store etc.). In another exemplary embodiment, some consumers (i.e. the recipients of the artifact) are located farther away. For these consumers, the artifact is digitally transmitted and produced (and mailed) at a proximal location.

Step 0.

Consumer is interested in getting a card for personal event and/or a number of them for a group event. The card requires deep customization and the consumer expects some subsidization if willing to accept coupons. Coupons will subsidize the activity around the event. (party supplies, couple vacation, clothes etc.)

Step 1.

Consumer enters details (for example, name, sex, keywords, wording, location and date/time are sensed, artifact of interest etc.) from mobile device. Alternatively, in another embodiment it can be from a kiosk. Some of these details can be available as part of an iPhone app and the registration that goes along with it. Also, other details such as context, interests and preferences can be pre-collected in other ways.

Step 2.

The central server uses one of the available templates and starts to produce a personalized artifact i.e., customized material, on a central server. This includes a personalized card as well as some personalization pieces that will be part of the coupon itself.

Step 3.

A script within the central server passes the context for generating targeted advertisements to a Targeted Ads Server. Targeted Ads will be generated as explained in detail below for the specific activity-driven purpose. A web-service routine to space getCoupons (context), for example, is called to activate the backend. The context can be a combination of name, sex, place, date/time, event and Keywords. The required output format can also be requested.

Step 4.

The targeted ads server sends the information and session information back to a mobile print server. The mobile print server rips the artifact and ads, identifies the POS, and sends the information to the POS at the location/store of the user. A categorized coupon page is printed (or individually emailed). One example is shown in FIG. 3. The print-server can also store the information for subsequent use at a location different than the consumer's current location.

With reference to FIG. 1, shown is a schematic of an exemplary system for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material according to this disclosure. The system includes a mobile device 10, a host server 12, a mobile print server 14, a targeted Ads server 16, a printing device 18 and an internet cloud which operatively connects the devices.

With reference to FIGS. 2A and 2B, illustrated are screen shots associated with the mobile device including an initial start page 20, a card type selection page 22, a vacation cards page 24 subcategory, a vacation card composition page 26 and a settings page 28.

FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate two exemplary embodiments to provide the system of FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. FIG. 4 is a Kiosk system 50 including a MFD 58 and a GUI 60. FIG. 5 includes a mobile device configuration including a mobile device 56 and a MFD 54.

Interconnected (Print/Computational/Mobile) Infrastructure in Hyper-Local Domain (Mall or Card-Like Store):

(1) A cloud inter-connected collection of deployed print/scan/image captures devices, for example, in kiosk format as illustrated in FIG. 4, that are connected to a server that can remotely respond to a keyword or image “context”.

(2) Capability through smart phone or e-reader to provide contextual information. The context can be semi-structured and can be algorithmically assigned to relevant portions of a template.

The result is a printed ad, a set of ads/coupons arranged by category as shown in FIG. 3. Alternatively they can be directions, maps, information, news feeds, etc. Inputs can be supplied from anywhere and outputs can be printed anywhere on devices near the POS. Of particular importance is the installation of this interconnected infrastructure in a hyper-local domain viz. malls, airports, bus-stations, groceries, stores etc because of the proximity of the customer to other stores. The proximity of other stores (and by extension other hyper-local domains) increases the value of the results provided to the user.

Mobile-Device/Query in Hyper-Local Domain

With reference to FIG. 5, according to one exemplary embodiment, a query is submitted via a mobile device before reaching a destination, for example, the mall or hallmark store.

This exemplary embodiment satisfies a need for a search for finding goods, services, directions or other news items of interest.

Upon such input from a mobile device the print output can be generated to a candidate set of pick-up locations. Optionally, these coupons may take an e-form—sent via email or text/MMS to the user for “green” scenarios.

Notably, there is no need to scan coupon by coupon (i.e. individually). The entire page can be scanned in one go. This is the option where a personalized list of coupons are scanned in one pass.

Any known interface can be used to facilitate the search—GUI (Graphical User Interface), search kiosk, mobile phone, hand-written search, marking/scanning things of interest, email from phone, scans from phone screen, etc. After submitting to the system, the system prints a list of available services, goods or messages pertinent to the search. It also prints a detailed map to get to the locations requested along with status of the different vendors in a mall or airport within the hyper-local domain. The search is typically restricted to the hyper-local domain but is more detailed—personalized menus, deals relevant to the customer, current restrictions in the domain, operational changes, news, shopping comparisons, etc.

Expected Consumer Action with the Printed Artifact and Event Correlations:

The printed artifact and the targeted coupons are correlated to the event or activity. For example, a birthday party, anniversary, graduation party etc.

The targeted ads are customized to the entire group as opposed to one person.

The consumer (either individual or member of the group) is expected to hand-over the printed artifact when demanded by service providers or shop-keepers to show proof of their involvement with the event.

Through a bar-code, DataGlyphs (a Xerox Trademark) or QR (Quick Response) code on a section of the printed artifact to enable scanning, etc., the loop may be closed from the entire event: searching->party planning->artifact printing->usage by individual people->determination of interests etc. Participating shop owners or service provider can provide some incentive or discounts upon the production of that coupon.

Tracking Consumer Action with Precision:

Marketing information provided back to the advertiser that are granular and progress tracking—such as which stage within an event a planner is. Notably, an event can be a series of actions such as searching from a device->party planning->artifact printing->usage by individual people/scan back at POS->determination of interests->feedback recommendations.

Nature of Visit to the Hyper-Local Domain:

(a) Normally with mobile phones it is impossible to say within a shop as to what the nature of visit is. With customized coupons that get handed in, granular information on the interest level can be recorded; for example one can delineate between the browsing consumer; a consumer enquiring about a product, consumers talking to a representatives, consumers that are buying a product, consumers using a coupon that was dispensed to another person, and consumers spending a lot of time in the hyper-local domain (interest validation/strengthening).

(b) If the visit resulted in a transaction (e.g. using a coupon from the card at a gift store within the same hyper-local domain or another hyper-local domain)

(c) If more information was gathered from store-owners etc. (e.g. feedback on interest categories the user in interested in for future, satisfaction survey on receipt etc.).

Such information, such as (a), (b) and (c) is valuable from a marketing standpoint. The shop-person performs a simple “ticket checking”-like operation and subsequently provides input to the system. MFDs can act as an on-ramp for incoming feedback from the consumer. For example, at the location where the coupon is used.

Targeting Method Card-Like Case Step 1: Known/Supplied Attributes:

Known are the user's identity, the location (latitude and longitude), the date/time, sex, past coupons, keywords and interest categories. In part, an application that is running on the user's device can be utilized to retrieve the aforementioned information.

Step 2: Event Correlations:

Further known are the event—birthday, party, anniversary and something that the event might generally be associated with, as is shown in FIG. 6. These event correlations are mined and stored as a context graph. FIG. 6 is a snapshot of a context graph from one exemplary system. A context graph stores associations between sets of keywords and captures a chain or sub-graph of events. A chain or sub-graph of events from the context graph is more amenable to targeting purposes even though individual keywords may appear uncorrelated. The context graph in FIG. 6 is for the entire population. However, the context graph can be structured to be dedicated for a single user, event type or locality. It can be used for both keywords and meta-data about events. The degree distribution, which describes the hubs and spokes in the graph helps to understand the correlated events as well as enable efficient searching. For example, see search High Degree Graphs by T. Walsh, Proceedings of the ACM IJCAI, 2001.

Step 3: Retrieving Relevant Event Correlations:

From the known attributes and the event correlations from the context graph a collection of associated event meta-data and keyword associations is extracted. Extracted meta-data may have a high probability of occurring in the system. Through the graph it can be quantified how much one piece of meta-data is further along than the other—e.g. using the measure hop-distance relative to the diameter of the graph. From the event correlations and other meta-data, the relevance of past history versus current information can be ranked. For example, the data from proximal devices that are related to the user (e.g. such as those devices that were frequented by the user in the past), temporal patterns etc.

FIG. 7 shows a determination of the relative importance of current context, historical context, users that are known to or like the current user; spatio-temporal patterns and the adjacency of other devices that the user has frequented.

Step 4: Subsidization:

After relevant meta-data has been identified, it is sent to a monetization engine. The monetization engine retrieves coupons, text ads and other ads that have been stored in the past, (i.e. cached ads either in the past or for the same user. For each of the ads printed and subsequently used at an alternate vendor, a credit is posted to the user's account. For example, this can be to the smart-phone account from which the process was started. Other known mechanisms are also applicable. For example, credit card, phone, check, giving a credit based on average coupon use by user or entire population, loyalty points, reward points etc. Regardless of the manner, the amount of subsidization may vary from person to person and depend on the ads available. However, it is expected to be lesser or equal to the standard price of the personalized card.

Step 5: Coupon Usage Tracking:

Since the amount of subsidization (for the next iteration) is dependent of usage of the dispensed advertisements or coupons, the coupons are tracked at participating vendors using standard bar-code readers and image processing. The usage is correlated to the card purchase and stored for providing credit to the user that initiated the process. Other sorts of known tracking such as XMPie Response URL, Persistent URLs, event portals may also aid activity tracking. Generalized workflow

Generalized Workflow

While the above described method and system pertains to the coupon and advertisement mechanism, the method and system described can be applied to other transactions involving subsidization in a hyper-local domain as shown in FIG. 8, including steps 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90 and 92.

FIG. 9 depicts an overall system according to an exemplary embodiment within the hyper-local domain that can be utilized for other forms of communication such as customized routes within a mall. These other forms of communication can themselves be of monetary value as it takes customers to certain regions of the mall.

The system includes a hyper-local domain 106, consumers 104, advertisers 102, a campaign broker 100, a placement module 108, a click-through module 110, campaign analytics 112, payment authorization 114 and incentive transfer 116.

Examples of an Advertiser Campaign (Several Forms of Targeted Communication)

Show a categorized list of coupons or ads.

Showing cached ads->ads stored within the hyper-local domain.

Showing information that relates only to the mall, store or hyper-local domain.

Examples of Materials that are Printed or Shown on Mobile Phone

While the main purpose of visiting the hyperlocal domain may be the POS purchase at a card-like store, other materials can provide marketing opportunities. The range of materials printed can cater to both first-time and regular users of the hyper-local domain. A list of examples is provided below.

-   Notably, the charge for printing is often free. -   Sale details for the hyper-local domain; -   Comparison shopping of all the deals; -   Personalized Menus (e.g. only chicken dinners in the hyper-local     domain across vendors); -   Public service messages for the hearing impaired; -   Public news announcements; -   Personalized News (only categories of interest to the user or those     that draw consumers to the hyper-local domain such as fashion news); -   Personalized Routes (a personalized shopping path to all the shoe     shops); -   Perforations—to give show-owners as “crumbs” of tracking in return     for discounts; -   Identifying information—login name, barcodes, QR code, color codes,     dataglyphs; -   Coded information that advertisers put—item codes etc.; -   General reading material; -   Local weather; -   Pictures and XMPie ulmage personalized images (e.g. keepsake     articles).

Usage of Statistics Collected & Inferences/Analytics Thereof (Fringe Statistics)

In addition to direct subsidization, the use of printed artifacts or inputs from mobile devices can themselves have a value because of their user tracking potential. This can be revenue that is used in the subsidization of POS artifact.

EXAMPLE 1

An example of searched items (on mobile or kiosk) and the relative popularity. These values can be used to place coupons/ads on the printed artifact in a preferential manner (top vs bottom). Searched items can be within the card-like shop. Searched values reveal intent of the user. FIG. 10 illustrates relative trends in a hyper-local domain across vendors or stores.

EXAMPLE 2

From the “ticket” that is collected by one or more shop-keepers, statistics such as those below can have value for marketing professionals.

-   Time spent at the mall/shop/station; -   Purpose of visit; -   Kind of interactions at the store-input from the shop-person goes     into the same system as explained earlier; -   Time spent at the store—with or without buying a good; -   Items purchased; -   Printing location; and, -   Trajectories or paths taken to the end-point (giving information on     which other points of sale are of interest to the user).

With reference to FIGS. 11-19, illustrated is another exemplary embodiment of this disclosure including an iPhone application.

It will be appreciated that variants of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be combined into many other different systems or applications. Various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims. 

1. A method for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material to a first party, the customized printed material including one or both of customized content selected by the first party and customized content provided by the first party, the customized printed material and the targeted advertising material printed at a POS (Point of Sale) printing device for a subsidized nominal price to be charged by a second party to the first party, the subsidized nominal price related to a nominal price subsidized by a third party associated with providing the targeted advertising material in consideration for the targeted advertising material being printed along with the customized printed material, the method comprising: a) the first party creating customized material including one or both of customized content selected by the first party and customized content provided by the first party to be printed by the POS printing device; b) communicating to one of the printing device and one or more servers operatively connected to the printing device the created customized material including the customized content to be printed by the POS printing device; c) one or more of the POS printing device and the one or more servers generating the targeted advertising material in a format for printing by the POS printing device; d) one or more of the POS printing device and the one or more servers providing nominal price subsidization information to one or both of the first party and the second party, the nominal price subsidization information associated with a subsidization of the nominal price associated with providing the customized printed material to the first party in consideration for the targeted advertising material being printed along with the customized printed material; e) the POS printing device printing the customized material and the target advertising material; and f) the first party paying the second party the subsidized nominal price based on the subsidization information.
 2. The method for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 1, wherein the customized material includes one or more of text and images.
 3. The method for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 1, wherein the targeted advertising material is generated as a function of one or more of the context of the customized printed material, one or more interests of the first party, one or more preferences of the first party, the location of the POS printing device, one or more keywords included in the customized printed material, one or more events associated with the customized printed material, a time associated with the printing of the customized printed material, one or more products offered y an advertiser associated with the targeted advertising material, and one or more services offered by an advertiser associated with the targeted advertising material.
 4. The method for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 1, wherein step a) comprises the first party creating the customized material at one of a MFD (multi function device) a KIOSK, a cell phone and a PC (personal computer).
 5. The method for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 1, wherein: step c) generates targeted advertising material in a format for printing by the POS device, the format including one or more of a coupon, an ad, a QRC (Quick Response Code), a Bar Code, a menu, a promotional item, an insert, an onsert, and an event-centric coupon.
 6. The method for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 1, wherein the customized material is one of a greeting card, a document, a publication, a banner, an event flyer, and a calendar.
 7. The method for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 1, wherein step e) includes printing the targeted advertising material without interfering with the printing of the customized material.
 8. The method for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 1, wherein the first party selects one of printing the customized printed material and targeted advertising material for the subsidized nominal price and printing the customized printed material without the targeted advertising material for the nominal price.
 9. The method for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 1, wherein step a) comprises the first party creating customized material including one or both of customized content selected from one or more of a plurality of predefined materials, and customized content provided by the first party including one or more of an image material and text material.
 10. The method for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 1, wherein the usage of the targeted advertising material by the first party is tracked and communicated to one of the first party, the second party, the third party and a fourth party whom receives the customized printed material from the first party and a fifth party associated with compiling the usage of the targeted advertising material.
 11. A method for providing rendered customized material and targeted advertising material to a first party, the rendered customized material including one or both of customized content selected by the first party and customized content provided by the first party, the customized material and the targeted advertising material rendered on a rendering device for a subsidized nominal price to be charged by a second party to the first party, the subsidized nominal price related to a nominal price subsidized by a third party associated with providing the targeted advertising material in consideration for the targeted advertising material being rendered along with the customized material, the method comprising: a) the first party creating customized material including one or both of customized content selected by the first party and customized content provided by the first party to be rendered by the rendering device; b) communicating to one of the rendering device and one or more servers operatively connected to the rendering device the created customized material including the customized content to be rendered by the rendering device; c) one or more of the rendering device and the one or more servers generating the targeted advertising material in a format for rendering by the printing device; d) one or more of the rendering device and the one or more servers providing nominal price subsidization information to one or both of the first party and the second party, the nominal price subsidization information associated with a subsidization of the nominal price associated with providing the rendered customized material to the first party in consideration for the targeted advertising material being rendered along with the customized material; e) the rendering device rendering the customized material and the target advertising material; and f) the first party paying the second party the subsidized nominal price based on the subsidization information.
 12. The method for providing rendered customized material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 11, wherein the customized material includes one or both of text and images.
 13. The method for providing rendered customized material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 11, wherein the targeted advertising material is generated as a function of one or more of the content of the customized material, one or more interests of the first arty, one or more preferences of the first party, the location of the rendering device, one or more keywords included in the customized material, one or more events associated with the customized material, a time associated with the rendering of the customized material, one or more products offered by an advertiser associated with the targeted advertising material, and one or more services offered by an advertiser associated with the targeted advertising material.
 14. The method for providing rendered customized material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 11, wherein step a) comprises the first party creating the customized material at one of a MFD (multi function device) a KIOSK, a cell phone and a PC (personal computer).
 15. The method for providing rendered customized material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 11, wherein step c) generates targeted advertising material in a format for rendering by the rendering device, the format including one or more of a coupon, an ad, a QRC (Quick Response Code), a bar code, a menu, a promotional item, an insert, an onsert, and an event-centric coupon.
 16. The method for providing rendered customized material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 11, wherein the customized material is one of a greeting card, a document, a publication, a banner, an event flyer, and a calendar.
 17. The method for providing rendered customized material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 11, wherein step e) includes rendering the targeted advertising material without interfering with the rendering of the customized material.
 18. The method for providing rendered customized material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 11, wherein the first party selects one of rendering the customized material and targeted advertising material for the subsidized nominal price and rendering the customized material without the targeted advertising material for the nominal price.
 19. The method for providing rendered customized material and targeted advertising material to a first party according to claim 11, wherein step a) comprises the first party creating customized material including one or both of customized content selected from one or more of a plurality of predefined materials, and customized content provided by the first party including one or more of an image material and text material.
 20. The method for providing rendered customized material and targeted advertising material to a first part, according to claim 11, wherein the usage of the targeted advertising material by the first party is tracked and communicated to one of the first party, the second party, the third party and a fourth party whom receives the rendered customized material from the first party and a fifth party associated with compiling the usage of the targeted advertising material.
 21. A printing system for providing customized printed material and targeted advertising material to a first party, the customized printed material including one or both of customized content selected by the first party and customized content provided by the first party, the customized printed material and the targeted advertising material printed at a POS (Point of Sale) printing device for a subsidized nominal price to be charged by a second party to the first party, the subsidized nominal price related to a nominal price subsidized by a third party associated with providing the targeted advertising material in consideration for the targeted advertising material being printed along with the customized printed material, the printing system comprising: a POS printing device; and one or more severs operatively connected to the POS printing device, wherein one or more of the POS printing devices and the one or more servers are configured to execute a method comprising: a) the first party creating customized material including one or both of customized content selected by the first party and customized content provided by the first party to be printed by the POS printing device; b) communicating to one of the printing device and one or more servers operatively connected to the printing device the created customized material including the customized content to be printed by the POS printing device; c) one or more of the POS printing device and the one or more servers generating the targeted advertising material in a format for printing by the POS printing device; d) one or more of the POS printing device and the one or more servers providing nominal price subsidization information to one or both of the first party and the second party, the nominal price subsidization information associated with a subsidization of the nominal price associated with providing the customized printed material to the first party in consideration for the targeted advertising material being printed along with the customized printed material; e) the POS printing device printing the customized material and the target advertising material; and f) the first party paying the second party the subsidized nominal price based on the subsidization information.
 22. The printing system according to claim 21, wherein the targeted advertising material is generated as a function of one or more of the context of the customized printed material, one or more interests of the first party, one or more preferences of the first party, the location of the POS printing device, one or more keywords included in the customized printed material, one or more events associated with the customized printed material, a time associated with the printing of the customized printed material, one or more products offered by an advertiser associated with the targeted advertising material, and one or more services offered by an advertiser associated with the targeted advertising material.
 23. The printing system according to claim 21, wherein step a) comprises the first party creating the customized material at one of a MFD (multi function device) a KIOSK, a cell phone and a PC (personal computer).
 24. The printing system according to claim 21, wherein step c) generates targeted advertising material in a format for printing by the POS device, the format including one or more of a coupon, an ad, a QRC (Quick Response Code), a Bar Code, a menu, a promotional item, an insert, an onsert, and an event-centric coupon.
 25. The printing system according to claim 21, wherein the customized material is one of a greeting card, a document, a publication, a banner, an event flyer, and a calendar.
 26. The printing system according to claim 21, wherein the usage of the targeted advertising material by the first party is tracked and communicated to one of the first party, the second party, the third party and a fourth party whom receives the customized printed material from the first party and a fifth party associated with compiling the usage of the targeted advertising material. 